As an internet marketer, you must surely know the value of an “anchor text” in search engine optimization. Although we use this term more often, most of us wonder what this phrase means.
Most marketers are yet to discover the real meaning of Google’s Hummingbird and Penguin update, which is why they are unsure about the significance of Anchor Text in Search Engine Optimization.
First, anchor texts are one of the most significant parts of SEO link-building strategies, which significantly impact the search engine’s ranking.
If you are using the anchor text daily and correctly, then you will witness that your ranks are improving day by day. However, if you are using it without implementing the right strategy, you might see that your organic search traffic might disappear overnight or even get penalized. In this article, we will give you a detailed account of what an anchor text is and use them to better your website’s performance.
What Is An Anchor Text? What Is Its Significance?
Sometimes on the website or pages, we come across some texts lined with other documents or locations on the web. These types of texts are referred to as anchor texts.
So, in a nutshell, it can be said that anchor texts are those texts which are clickable in a hyperlink. For example, if you are writing a sentence with the word Wikipedia, the word is the overview of the anchor text.
It can be easily created with the help of simple HTML code. So, unless backlinks are essential in SEO ranking, the anchor text will also play an important role. It is added for the betterment of search engines to determine what the page is about that you linked.
Before the 2012 Penguin Update of Google, the anchor text was used by Google to see if the particular websites were relevant or not. In today’s era, most sites use anchor text, an excellent way for a search engine to find websites for over-optimization and spam.
9 Types Of Anchor Texts
Here we have mentioned the 9 types of organic anchor text mentioned below. Anchor text means that you clearly understand the different types of anchors. This will help you create a link profile consisting of a different range of organic anchors.
1. Generic Anchors
Now, if you go by the name, it will make sense that generic anchors are everyday anchor texts like “click here” or “go here.” For example, in the sentence “Click here to visit the page to get a free eBook, “click here is the generic anchor.
2. Branded Anchor
A branded anchor is a type of text that uses the brand name. These anchor texts are safest to use until and unless the website is the exact match domain. Many well-known sites and brands, such as Best Buy and Moz, have the highest number of branded anchor texts. You will find some images in Google, with the help of which you see detailed data regarding the branded anchors.
3. Naked Link Anchors:
These are the kind of anchors that are linked back to the site by using the URL simply. There are many examples of links that are both naked link anchors.
4. Brand+Keyword Anchor:
Using the brand and keyword anchor is one of the safest and most effective methods to help build a solid anchor profile. That is generally the combination of the name of your brand and the keyword of your choice. That is a combination of the name of your brand and the keyword you choose, for example. “SEO services by Moz” is a brand and keyword anchor example.
5. Image Anchors:
To diversify the anchor profile further, one of the essential things you can do is consider the image anchors. In an image, the “alt” texts are read as anchor text by Google. However, if you leave this blank, then this will result in a “no text” anchor.
6. LSI Anchors:
The complete form of LSI is Latent Semantic Indexing. It generally refers to the variation of the primary keyword or can be said to be the keyword synonym. For example, if you are looking for a “Flower Shop,” LSI keywords should have words like “Flower Shop Online,” “Florist Shop,” “Florist Online,” and the list goes on. You can check each query’s related searches at the end of SERP.
7. Partial Match Anchor Text:
The partial match anchor text means the partial presence of the keywords in the anchor text, which is said to be a partial match. Examples of partial match anchors are “useful link-building guides.” “learn more about link building,” etc.
8. Long Tail Anchors:
These anchor texts are similar to partial text anchors. The only fact difference is that they are a little bit longer. Some of the best examples of long tail anchors are “Anchor text is an important part of link building” and “They are the result of ranking anchor text.”
9. Exact Match
The exact match anchors are one of the most significant types of anchor text. Alongside playing an essential role in improving the rankings in the search engine, they can also become the reason through which Google can penalize you. Now, if you go by the name, then this name suggests that these matches are the exact match of the target keyword. For example, if you have a target keyword of “link building,” your text anchor will also be exactly “link building.”
Tips To Optimize Anchor Text
Keep Them Relevant
If you want to use anchor text to your advantage, one of the most important things you should remember is to keep them utterly relevant to your content. The target keyword is entirely relevant, and the higher it is, the better for the content.
Keep that in mind if you want to have the best results for sure.
Take Care Of The Distribution
Another essential tip for you is to ensure that the anchor text is appropriately distributed in your article. Improper distribution of the anchor text would make the entire piece of content seem dull and cluttered. That is something that the search engines pick up on quickly.
So, if you want the search engine rankings for your website to improve, then you need to take care of the distribution of the anchor text to see if it is evenly distributed across the entire content piece.
Don’t Link Them To Toxic Sites
The authority links that are occasionally linked into the anchor texts are the ones that help you in reaching a high position in the Search engine results. However, these sites can make or break the ranking that you have on the results as well.
How, you might ask? Well, if you link the anchor texts of the articles to the toxic sites, then this is something the Google search engine will pick up on. That can cause the ranking of your website to drop drastically. Surely you don’t want that to happen to your website. So, you need to take care of that.
Guest Posts Should Be Relevant
You might be a little surprised to know that your guest posts on the website are critical, contrary to what you might think. These guest posts help in building the perfect rank profile.
So, you need to write guest posts relevant to your anchor texts. That is one of the best ways to improve the rankings of your website of yours.
Track The Anchor Texts
Another one of the most important things while building backlinks is to pay attention to the tracking of the anchor texts. Otherwise, you might take a specific step without weighing the consequences. Avoid this mistake at any cost.
In Conclusion
So, that is all that we have for you today, people.
With the help of the anchor text, you can easily influence the ranking of your websites. So, try it out right now.
It would be best if you implemented the right strategies of Anchor Text, as this will enable you to appreciate the well-optimized presence on the search engines that will increase your Search Engine Ranking as well.
Related: Google Ads Strategy For Tour & Travel Agencies
